Abstract
Energy piles—A fairly new renewable energy concept—Use a ground heat exchanger (GHE) in the foundation piles to supply heating and cooling loads to the supported building. Applying phase change materials (PCMs) to piles can help in maintaining a stable temperature within the piles and can then influence the axial load acting on the piles. In this study, two kinds of carbon-based composite PCMs (expanded graphite-based PCM and graphite nanoplatelet-based PCM) were prepared by vacuum impregnation for potential application in energy piles. Thereafter, a systematic study was performed and different characterization tests were carried out on two composite PCMs. The composite PCMs retained up to 93.1% of paraffin and were chemically compatible, thermally stable and reliable. The latent heat of the composite PCM was up to 152.8 J/g while the compressive strength of cement paste containing 10 wt % GNP-PCM was found to be 37 MPa. Hence, the developed composite PCM has potential for thermal energy storage applications.
Highlights
The rapid increase in global energy consumption has led to serious issues such as depletion of fossil fuels and degradation of the environment [1,2]
Energy policy makers and researchers are paying a lot of attention to the building sector as it is responsible for around 30% of the total global energy consumption [4,5]
Geothermal energy can sustainably be utilized with a ground-source heat pump, which takes advantage of the ground as an energy storage system [6,7]
Summary
The rapid increase in global energy consumption has led to serious issues such as depletion of fossil fuels and degradation of the environment [1,2]. Energy policy makers and researchers are paying a lot of attention to the building sector as it is responsible for around 30% of the total global energy consumption [4,5]. Energy piles—A fairly new renewable energy technique—use a ground heat exchanger (GHE) in the foundation piles to supply heating and cooling loads to the supported building. In the energy piles system, the piles are used to absorb and transport thermal energy from the surrounding ground to buildings via fluid circulating in pipes placed within the piles. The thermal cycle can influence the loading of energy piles.
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